The new Highway 5 bridge over the Osage Arm of the Lake of the Ozarks at the 35 mile marker is being built less than five feet to the east of the existing Hurricane Deck Bridge. For an estimated $32.3 million from the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), the American Bridge Co. is constructing a new crossing that will be 38 feet wide to accommodate two 12-foot driving lanes with seven-foot shoulders on each side.

What's new

Workers have been attaching reinforcing steel to girders spanning the new piers. As they get 100-200 foot sections ready, concrete will be poured to form the bridge deck. The pour of the section on the north end has been completed. According to MoDOT spokesperson Bob Lynch, the crews will do the south end of the bridge next before moving on to work over the water. Each section over the water will be poured in an engineer-designated sequence to minimize stress on the girders and piers.

What's next

The rebar and concrete work will continue for the next couple of months, Lynch said. Once that is completed, construction of the concrete barrier curb, which also involves a lot of steel, will begin. That should take around a month. Much of the grading work to tie the roadway into the bridge has also been done with paving to be done closer to the end of construction. The new bridge is on schedule to be finished by the end of the year, Lynch said. Once the new crossing is complete, the old bridge will be demolished.